


The woes of Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy

by mangoee



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Draco needs a hug, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Eventual Smut, Fluff, Friendship, Harry Needs a Hug, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Romance, Self-Harm, Self-Hatred, Shy Harry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-07
Updated: 2020-04-09
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:07:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23052193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mangoee/pseuds/mangoee
Summary: Harry has so much pressure to be perfect and save the world. With past abuse from his relatives and the media constantly lying, he just needs a hug.Draco is filled with self hate and jealous of the perfect harry brat potter.It all changes when Draco walks in on Harry cutting himself in the bathroom.(Set in sixth year)
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter
Comments: 7
Kudos: 206





	1. Chapter 1

Harry woke up in the dark, sweat all over. He had had yet another nightmare of his past abuse from Vernon Dursley. It was always the same scene where he was helpless and couldn’t stop the belt from lashing against his back.

The abuse over the years hadn’t always been physical. Harry was very small and skinny for his age having been malnourished from a young age. The first evening at Hogwarts, he remembered the sight of so much food that he almost cried when eating the first bite. He had always had the left over scraps.

Every summer he had to go back to the Dursley’s, but now that he was older, it was slightly better. Even though it had been at least three years since the last beating, it still came back to haunt him every week or so.

Harry checked around the dorm to see if he had woken anyone. It seemed quiet enough. ‘It wouldn’t be any use going back to sleep now,’ he thought, climbing out of the covers and slipping off his four poster bed. Not wanting to wake his dorm mates up, he walked to another bathroom away from the Gryffindor tower. It was silent as he walked through the empty corridors. Technically he would get into trouble if he was caught, but he didn’t care. He wasn’t tired anymore, and the thought of having a nightmare again gave him a shiver down the spine. 

Finally reaching the bathroom, harry was unsurprised to find it empty. It was here that he finally broke down. He needed to let out his suppressed emotions, and having a bedroom shared by dorm mates made it hard to cry in peace.

Life was unfair. What made other kids worthy of having parents who were alive, and relatives who loved them. Why must he be “the boy who lived.” He got jealous when Ron would talk about his family, jealous of Hermione’s Muggle parents, and even jealous of Malfoy. Knowing that Malfoy could dob on anyone saying “my father will hear about this,” made him die a little bit in the inside. He wanted so badly to be able to tell his own father that Draco was being a bully.

This bathroom became a usual place for harry to go to at 3:00 am every morning, and when he fell asleep in class, the teachers would only look at him in concern, never really asking him what was wrong. Nobody ever did ask harry whether he was doing OK or not. Why would they? He was “The boy who lived.” “Perfect Potter.” 

—

When Draco Malfoy found himself walking to the bathroom in the early hours of the morning, his first thought was not “why am I walking here,” but rather “I’m meant to be here for some unknown reason.”

He wasn’t quite sure about why he was walking to the bathroom closest to the Gryffindor common room, but he did know that it was better than lying awake for ages from a nightmare-induced sleep.

Draco found himself waking from nightmares every now and then, it was not a new thing in his life. But this was the first time he found himself doing something other than lying with his eyes open for the whole night. His dreams changed over time, but they always managed to include some sort of abuse from his father.

Draco liked to pretend he could count on his dad to bully his enemies, but when it came down to it, the fact was that he didn’t care at all about anything Draco did. Draco constantly wanted to impress his father, but even when he studied for hours at a time, that stupid brat Hermione would beat him at top marks. Every. Single. Time.

He finally reached the bathroom. Hopefully he wouldn’t get caught out of bed by a teacher. Sighing, irritated for no reason, he pushed open the doors and walked into the boy’s bathroom.

The scene that hit him was horrific. Harry fucking Potter was lying on the tiled floor surrounded by a pool of blood.

After a few moments of utter silence, he ran over in shock and checked to see if he was breathing. Why the hell was Potter dying in a pool of blood? After a few blood replacement spells, he saw that Harry was still alive, just unconscious.

The reason behind it all became clear when he saw a razor clutched in his hand and slices on both arms. He looked away for a few moments, processing the new information.

It looked like Potter’s life wasn’t so saintly after all. Draco heard a whimper and whipped his head around with a start. Harry wasn’t awake yet, but he was muttering incoherently. Draco gently shook his shoulders to try and get him to wake. He didn’t really feel like waking him up after everything that had just happened, but he didn’t want to just leave him here on his own.

Harry’s eyes fluttered open and Draco nearly jumped. If it wasn’t such a stressful situation, he might have cooed at such an adorable face.

“What? Where am I,” harry whispered, taking in his surroundings.

“Oh harry, you bloody idiot,” Draco heard himself say, shaking his head but still leaning over to comfort Harry. Harry couldn’t help but flinch away when he saw Draco's hands stretch out towards him.

“I’m sorry,” Draco said with a frown, letting his arm fall. He saw harry’s eyes widen when glancing at the sight of the room and at his arms where the faint lines of cuts were.

“I found you dying in a pool of blood,” Draco said, glancing away. “Do you want to talk about it?” Harry’s voice was hoarse when he finally spoke.

“I never thought it would get this bad,” he whispered, looking at the floor in shame. I’m usually good about not losing to much blood.” 

Draco closed his eyes, not wanting to shout at Harry.

“You need to stop cutting your self. This is serious, and you need to go to the infirmary right now.”

“No, No!” Harry exclaimed, suddenly sitting up in alarm. “Please don’t tell anyone, I’ll do anything! I don’t need to go to the infirmary.” Draco knew that he shouldn’t listen to him, but harry looked so scared.

After a few moments of silence, Draco finally replied.

“I’m going to make sure you stop cutting yourself. If I see new scars, I will not hesitate to tell Dumbledore. Promise me that you’ll stop with the self-harm.”

“I will stop, I promise,” Harry whimpered, trying not to cry.

“Good, and I know there’s a reason behind this,” Draco continued. “I want to help, please let me help you. If you need to talk about something, please owl me.” Draco took Harry’s hands in his, and they sat there for a long time, processing everything that had happened.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry finds himself a new friend :)

Whenever Harry passed Malfoy in the corridors, he would blush scarlet and quickly look away. Part of it was shame, and the other part was embarrassment. He should have been more careful, and now it had resulted in a private part of his life been exposed. If Malfoy told his friends, or used the newly found information against him, everything could get so much worse. He really didn’t need another horrible article written about him.

It had been a week since the bathroom incident, and so far nothing had gone wrong. In potions, Harry had awkwardly stumbled into Malfoy, and instead of the usual insult, Malfoy had given him a half smile and carried on retrieving ingredients from the supplies closet. Harry felt weird after that. Did Malfoy feel sorry for him after the incident? Was he going to stop the bullying for a bit? Harry would certainly welcome a break from their usual bickering. 

Although potions with Slughorn was alright, defence against the dark arts was not the most enjoyable. Snape seemed to be in a horrible mood as always, and docked 30 points off of Harry for being two minutes late to class. Throughout the lesson, Harry found his eyes drift towards Malfoy every now and then. A few times he simply studied his features absentmindedly, but there were a few awkward moments when Malfoy caught Harry’s eye. That resulted in his checks heating up, and the floor becoming very exciting to stare at.

That evening in the Gryffindor common room, Harry found himself zoning out of Hermione’s usual homework lectures. Although, a quick glance at Ron’s face, and Harry could tell he wasn’t the only one. 

“Harry, for the last few days you’ve been awfully distracted in class,” Hermione continued, looking up from her planner with a frown. “Are you sure there’s nothing bothering you?”

“Oh, um, yeah there’s nothing bothering me,” Harry replied quickly. “I’m just a little sleepy most of the time.” 

Worry highlighted Hermione’s face in the candlelight.  
“It’s important that you don’t stay up too late Harry. It will affect your grades long term.” 

Harry found himself become a little annoyed. It wasn’t his choice to stay up all night, it was the bloody nightmares. Not that he’d admit that though, Hermione might make him ask Snape for a dreamless sleep potion. No ways in hell was he going to ask Snape for a favour any time soon. 

Ginny had been listening to the conversation from the couch next to them. She sauntered over and crossed her arms in a cocky way. 

“I think Harry’s in looove,” she crooned, giggling at his suddenly flustered face. She turned to Hermione and Ron. “He’s usually half asleep, but for the last few days I’ve noticed him staring at someone in the great hall whenever we eat. But before you ask, no I don’t know who it is. There’s a lot of people in the great hall you know.” 

“Harry’s got a crush!” Hermione giggled, and a few kids around them looked towards Harry. 

“No I don’t!” Harry Insisted, his ears growing hotter by the second. He didn’t know how they had jumped to that conclusion, but the attention on him was unnerving

“Yeah right mate,” Ron laughed, knowing that he wouldn’t openly admit it any time soon. Harry was fond of Ginny, but right now he was greatly annoyed. She seemed to know him better than he did himself most of the time. 

When she initially crushed on him in her first year, something happened that made her stop abruptly. Harry wasn’t sure why, but Ginny seemed ok with whatever knowledge she picked up. Actually, he needed to ask her about that some time. 

Once again, Harry was awoken by the stench of sweat and bad memories that night. His mind had swept back to his eight-year-old self, and the day that Dudley had pulled his pants down in front of his classmates. That was the first day he had fought back and slapped Dudley in the face. It wasn’t much help though. Harry found himself so black and blue with bruises that his Aunt and Uncle made him stay home for a month to not worry the teachers about his appearance. 

The moon peeking through the arched window sent a cold gloom into the dorm room, and Harry felt the vibration of his shoulders shaking with fear. He knew that the Dursley’s could do no harm while he was here at Hogwarts, but every summer, he returned to Privet Drive, and the fear returned once again. He was almost old enough to live alone, but not quite there yet. 

Sweeping his invisibility cloak on, he sneaked out of Gryffindor tower and looked for a place of solitude. Pacing down empty corridors, Harry eventually found a spot in the castle where he could sit and stare at the many stars in the sky. It was such a peaceful spot that he undid his cloak, and creaked the window open. The crisp cool air made his ears numb, but it did calm his racing heart. There was a small chance that a teacher could find him out of bed, but it was more likely that they were sleeping in their chambers. 

Harry didn’t know how long he sat there for, but it felt like minutes after when the sound of faint footsteps echoed against the stone. Recognising the pale hair of Draco in the minimal moonlight, his tensed shoulders relaxed knowing it wasn’t a teacher. 

“Can’t sleep?” Draco whispered, setting himself down next to Harry with an air of elegance. “I can’t either,” he added, sighing in deep thought. 

Harry’s response was a small shrug, not knowing what else to say. Draco seemed to have a different side to him lately, and it was such a new experience for Harry. Suddenly remembering about the bathroom episode, Harry quickly turned to Draco.

“I never thanked you for helping me,” Harry began, a little bit embarrassed. He wasn’t the best at apologies. “I feel really bad that you had to find me like that, but thank you Draco. Thank you for saving me.” 

Draco looked as awkward as Harry felt, but smiled softly as he looked down.  
“Don’t worry about it Harry, but I do hope you realise how serious self harm is.” 

Harry felt a tingle go down his spine when Draco lifted him arm up gently. A few minutes of speculation, and Draco looked back into Harry’s wide eyes. Oh wow, had Malfoy’s eyes always been so silvery blue? 

“It doesn’t look like you have any new scars, but when I check again don’t let me find any more,” Draco advised. Harry shuffled his feet uncomfortably, not wanting to argue with him.

They talked into the early hours of the morning, enjoying each other’s company, and Harry found the idea of someone looking out for him very comforting. 

Maybe a new friendship was starting to blossom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ooh what does Ginny know?

**Author's Note:**

> Oops I didn’t plan for this to get so sad. Next chapter will be happy, I promise :P


End file.
